You know I love a nicely crafted ad campaign. And you also know that I really like looking behind the scenes of a nicely crafted ad campaign. The folks over at Elastic have posted some fantastic stop-motion work for agency, Amalgamated and their client Ben & Jerry's. The campaign is a fresh take on the It's What's Inside That Counts platform that has been running for a few years.

Each spot takes place in and around the ice cream carton, but is otherwise an otherwordly experience that brings the story behind the company to life via charming dioramas. What's cool about this work is how it manages to contemporize the brand without losing the hippie charm it has always had - even though it's technically now owned by Unilever. Very non-hippie. The production company has provided a download of not only the spots, but the making-of videos to boot. Very hippie of them. Not only does what's inside count, but also what's behind.

Packed with Brownies:

The Making of Packed with Brownies:

Bonnaroo Buzz:

The Making of Bonnaroo Buzz:

There is also a print portion of the campaign that isn't quite as complicated but does support the broadcast nicely. (I do wish it were more robust, but they probably spent their budget on the TV.) The fair-trade twitter digital piece, however, may be my favorite campaign element of all. It takes whatever leftover characters you don't use (up to 140 of course) when posting via Twitter and pushes a message about the benefits of Fair-Trade business practices. It's simple, totally on brand, and manages to use the inherent characteristic of a piece of technology in a new way. (My current MAS students, see what they did there?)

Ben & Jerry's Fair Tweets:

Two Print Examples:

(Images and video courtesy of the agency and production company listed above. I also saw the the brownie ad first on motionographer - a very cool site in it's own right. Thanks guys!)